This isn't the first time this claim has been made in this thread.
And I'm going to call BS on it.
It's a claim that makes two assumptions: First that the location of the violence has shifted, and second that the victim profile has changed.
There is little evidence for both.
One of the few web features that NOLA.com does a good job on is the map of the Murders in the city. It's worth a look: New Orleans Murders - NOLA.com
Obviously all murders are violence, but not all of the violence are murders. But Murders are the "ultimate" violence, and at the very less give us a good place to start.
So let's look at the first claim, that the location of the violence has shifted. It's clear that there are murder "hot spots" -- Hollygrove, Central City, Treme/Esplanade Ridge, St Roch/7th Ward/St Claude, and New Orleans East. Ask any New Orleanian what the "dangerous" neighborhoods are, and you'll probably get a list similar to that. Also, the map shows that the middle and upper class neighborhoods of Uptown/University, Lakeview, and Gentilly have only a fraction of the murders of the other neighborhoods.
Additionally Orleans Parish has always been a community where only blocks separate crack houses from mansions. This hasn't changed -- it's just as the murder rate goes up, people have more opportunity to say "Oh my God, that happened around the corner."
So with that first claim debunked, let's move onto the second claim, that the violence and the victims are "different."
The map gives the victims sex, race, and age. Murder victims in this city are OVERWHELMINGLY male, black, and 18-40 years old. No other demographic comes even close. And while the map doesn't give their occupation, the vast majority of the dead are involved, in one way or another in drugs and/or gangs.
My point ultimately is that details of murders in our city, as sad as it is, can essentially be predicted. It is not, as some people are claiming, random and spreading. The murder rate in New Orleans is embarrassing and horrific, please don't get me wrong. But we can do without the fear mongering -- it's scary enough already.
I grew up in the heart of safe, white Jefferson Parish. It was a good place to spend a childhood. And I was afraid of Orleans, with vivid memories of watching the news during the height of the murders in the 90s.
But when I moved into the city, I realized that it wasn't a dangerous place to live. Oh sure it requires a different set of "street smarts" than living in the suburbs, and non-criminals sometimes get mugged. But it's not a warzone out there -- at least not for you and me. It might be for a 19 year old slinging on the corner of Villere and St Bernard, but not for us.
When I lived in New Orleans I lived in a lot of the "border" neighborhoods -- the edge between Central City and Uptown, the Lower Garden District and St Thomas, the nice part of MidCity and the bad part of MidCity. Because of this I took precautions. I made sure my driveway/doorway was well lit, I got to know my neighbors, I avoided walking down dark streets drunk at 3am, etc. And never once was I ever a victim of crime -- although my roommates bike was jacked once (she got it back from the guy who sells used bikes on Magazine near le bon temps).
And I never, ever, let it stop me from walking into Central City for a hot sausage with cheese poboy, hot fries, and a bottle of Big Shot.